7.16.13

Today is my second day in the lab.  I got here at 8:40 ish and they still hadn’t started their day. Its now 9:00 and there isn’t anything to report. I got a mask but have been able to find gloves yet. There was a new guy in the lab that I didn’t recognize so I introduced myself as a med student (white lie) and he’s been awesome. Maybe he’ll even let me draw blood! I’d totally practice on myself. So far, this guy has taken the most interest in me – he’s great! He just taught me how to do the fast HIV test. I love doing things. It makes the whole day go by so much faster. 2 drops of blood, 2 drops of buffer, and put the time to read the test at the bottom. Bam. I really want them to teach me to take blood.

            They invited me to eat lunch with him and it was yummy. Blue torillas, some crunchy thing that  looked like the fluffy Styrofoam chips they give out a Chinese restaurants, avocado, also with green beans, really fluffy cheese, and a bunch of random other things. It was truly delicious though. Bizarre-looking but delicious.

            Then while the girls finished eating the guys from the lab came and ran the blood-taking operation. Guys are so much cooler. They saw me hovering and were like wanna draw blood. Do I want to draw blood!? Of course! But, I had to tell them that I technically wasn’t certified to take blood and I didn’t want to cause problems. They said they would teach me how. Yay boys.

            Yay girls! The girl nurses just taught me how to do the capillary test. Its just taking blood from the tip of your finger and using that for the rapid HIV test. They use a spring loaded needle like the ones diabetics use. Its totally protected all the time so you really can’t go wrong.

            Hell yeah! The nurses just taught me to really draw blood. Muahaha I beasted. Ok, not really. There were some little hiccups, but since then I’ve beasted. No one has died. Yay.  I’ve done it about a dozen times now, and one of the nurses even let me draw it from his hand. Hard are harder because the veins are little, but I did it – and there are no signs of bruising! God I feel so alive I could skip. It was really wonderful to be given that type of responsibility. I guess I’ve always known that I like doing medical stuff to people – calming them down and cleaning cuts etc etc etc, but I never realized it would be such a high. The male nurses kept teaching me more and more of the details. Where to put your hands, how to hold things so it goes smoother. How to set everything up in the beginning so that you don’t have to fumble at all.